Are your employees leaving you for your competitors? Skilled labour is diminishing so you need to do a bit more to find those good candidates. Have you thought about your marketing strategy? Are you putting out content such as a picture or a video a couple of times a week? What are your values and passions as a company? Recruitment marketing and campaigns attract candidates who share the same visions as you.

It’s not just about salary and benefits. What’s the ethos of the company? What does a typical day in the office look like? Be consistent and authentic.

Some advertising campaigns are so successful that they remain in our heads for years after their release. Now, imagine how many candidates would remember your job openings if they were advertised in creative recruitment campaigns. It’s an exciting thought!

Today, we’re exploring how to supercharge creative recruitment marketing. From the top UK recruitment campaign ideas to 5 takeaway tips specifically for recruitment agencies, this blog is here to elevate your strategy. Let’s dive straight in.

What Are Recruitment Campaigns? 

When you think of marketing, you probably think of someone trying to sell a product or service. However, that’s not all marketing and campaigns that can be applied. 

Recruiters can also use traditional marketing techniques and principles to attract candidates, increase their job posting reach, and improve brand awareness. 

For example, typical strategies like social media ads, SEO, content marketing, and guerilla marketing can assist you in the search for the perfect candidate. 

The research doesn’t lie. SHRM found that agencies and companies that use recruitment marketing receive three times more leads. 

It also saves your team time, as more candidates approach your company once the campaign is live. 

5 Marketing Tips For Recruitment Agencies 

Don’t launch your recruitment campaign ideas without considering these five points. 

1. Know your needs

The first step to any marketing campaign is clarifying your requirements. Without a clear plan, your campaign may appear too diffused or confusing. As an agency you need to decide, are you focusing on attracting candidates or clients. What would be a successful results for us as a company.

For a candidate boosting campaign you would need to clearly outline the job roles, skills needed, and the company’s brand identity as soon as possible. This way, you’ll create content that accurately reflects the business needs.

2. Determine your target candidate

If we sticking with the candidate boosting campaign, alongside fleshing out a clear roadmap for the company’s needs, you must get to know your target demographic. 

For example, what social media platforms do they use? Where do they frequent? You don’t want to post your campaign in a place they won’t see. 

3. Don’t rush the content

Content may be king, but that doesn’t mean you need to generate it in the blink of an eye. A slapdash project doesn’t represent your company well. 

Make sure the campaign has high-quality imagery and grammatically correct copy before you press post. For recruitment content, this means diving deep and creating the best possible content possible that helps your target audience of potential clients and candidates. 

4. Set goals 

Setting tangible goals can help you keep track of a campaign project. It’s easy to send out a campaign, but it may not achieve the intended results if you don’t have goalposts. 

For instance, you may want to recruit a specific number of candidates by the end of the quarter. This can inspire you to create an excellent campaign and share it far and wide. Utilise different strategies such as reddit to get your name out there. 

Or if you have the budget in your agency, then consider getting web developers involved to build lead generation widgets to put on your website, what about a free CV building tool. 

For agencies working with smaller budgets, you could offer free templates to generate leads e.g. a free reference request email template. 

5. Measure the response

The best way to know whether your campaign is reaching the specified goals? You need to measure its results. Keep tabs on applicant numbers and views. These metrics can inform you of general interest, and you can use them to improve future campaigns.

7 Memorable Examples of Recruitment Campaign Ideas

Need a little inspiration? We’re not saying you’ve got the budget to compete with these recruitment campaigns from some of the leading companies, but just for fun, here are seven UK recruitment campaign ideas that broke the mould. 

1. Aldi’s Career Changer Programme

In 2018, Aldi launched a “Career Changer” UK campaign that was all about helping graduates ditch their jobs for a more fulfilling role. What was memorable about the campaign? It had an informal tagline of ‘So, you’re doing a job that just isn’t you anymore.”

2. British Army’s This Is Belonging 

If you’re in the UK, you’ll likely remember the British Army’s ‘This Is Belonging’ campaign. This recruitment campaign focused on promoting inclusivity and confidence, showing potential candidates that they can fit in regardless of their background. Pair this message with adrenaline-fuelled visuals, and you have a recipe for success.

3. Tesco’s Food Love Stories

While Tesco’s Food Love Stories can be seen as a way of connecting with customers, they also serve as poignant recruitment adverts. This is because they show the brand’s down-to-earth values and create an emotional response in potential candidates.

4. GCHQ’s CyberFirst Campaign

Plenty of recruitment campaign ideas focus on attracting young talent, but GCHQ (part of the National Cyber Security Centre) did it well with their CyberFirst campaign. This aimed to inspire the next generation through school and college initiatives, girls-only competitions, and free university offers.

5. NHS – We Are The NHS

The NHS ‘We Are The NHS’ campaign is another meaningful recruitment marketing idea. This campaign was created to address staffing shortages and focuses on how meaningful NHS work is and how candidates can progress and develop their skills with unique opportunities.

6. BBC – BBC Academy 

Nurturing the next generation is always a good idea for finding great recruits. Like GCHQ, BBC also launched a campaign dedicated to younger journalists and media enthusiasts. The BBC Academy provides free training and development to support the future BBC staff and to provide accessible tools to the wider industry.

7. Deloitte’s BrightStart Apprenticeship Scheme

‘Discover your potential’ is a hard message to ignore, and Deloitte proved it with the success of their early career BrightStart campaign. This campaign targeted young candidates, promising a training programme with a permanent job and professional qualifications. 

Recruitment Campaign Ideas – The Takeaway

Whether you’re targeting the next gen or want to attract skilled workers, a recruitment campaign can help you level up your recruitment funnel. 

But that’s not the only way. Recruiters also benefit from all-in-one recruitment software solutions. Make your life easier with a tool that oversees the complete hiring process, including CRM, applicant tracking, payroll, and compliance. 

Learn more about Easy T now. Or discover more on our Knowledge Hub.